The unclassified glossary cites the work of controversial left-leaning academics
FILE PHOTO: The seals of the US Cyber Command, the National Security Agency and the Central Security Service are seen at their headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, March 13, 2015. © AFP / Getty Images / Chip Somodevilla
The US National Security Agency (NSA) compiled a list of hundreds of “social justice” terms for employees, including references to “white privilege” and “Critical Race Theory,” according to the Daily Wire, which obtained a leaked copy of the document.
The 34-page dictionary was created by the spy organization last year but only revealed on Wednesday. In an introductory passage, the NSA describes the document as a “starting point for engaging in open and honest conversation” and a “tool meant to build a shared language of understanding.”
“The following is a glossary of terms and language commonly used in dialogue regarding diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice to be used as a reference,” it says.
The dictionary contains a long list of terms related to racism, sexuality and other politically and socially charged topics, including “white supremacy,” “queer theory” and “racial equity.” The Daily Wire accused the NSA of endorsing “blatantly left-wing views on race and sex,” noting that the glossary favorably cites the work of controversial academics popular on the political left.
Those thinkers include critical race theorist and Boston University professor Ibram X. Kendi, as well as Robin DiAngelo, corporate diversity trainer and author of ‘White Fragility.’ Quoting DiAngelo directly, the NSA document defines the latter term as “the state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves [in white people].”
Republican Congressman Mike Waltz, who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, said he confirmed the authenticity of the diversity dictionary, and later urged the NSA to “get back to preventing terrorist attacks and countering China.”
“I just can’t overemphasize how shocking this is,” Waltz told the Daily Wire. “This isn’t some kind of diversity document… in, say, the Small Business Administration. This is the NSA, the National Security Agency, one of the most powerful agencies in the world.”
The NSA came under fire in 2013 after whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked a massive trove of files detailing the agency’s illicit surveillance of American citizens. The revelations were a bombshell at the time, as then-NSA Director James Clapper had falsely insisted to lawmakers that his agency was not “wittingly” collecting “any type of data at all on millions of Americans.”
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Snowden has been charged under the World War I-era Espionage Act, but has remained in Russia after his passport was revoked by US authorities, where he was granted asylum and later Russian citizenship.